The History of Subliminal Ads

By

Christopher Shea

Feb 15, 2012 9:44 am ET

At Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee surveys the strange history of the study of subliminal advertising. One scholar of the subject, Wilson Bryan Key, author of such works as “Media Sexploitation,” claimed to have sold 8.5 million books, as people clamored to learn about the salacious images supposedly to be found in the ice cubes in liquor ads.

His colleagues at the University of Western Ontario were less enthralled with his work: The university eventually paid him $64,000 to give up his academic job. Another key figure in the field, James Vicary, also enjoyed a mixed academic reputation. The author of a new history of subliminal ads, Charles R. Acland, gives him this notably hedged compliment, McLemee observes: “While the veracity of his research was sometimes questionable, and he may have been a habitual liar or bad researcher, he was also an innovator …”